There's a sense of irony about this. Yet again we're privatising part of a franchise, to a state-ran operator from another EU country.

I'm pleased Virgin were disqualified from bidding, but its a shame it was over Pension rules, rather than the huge burden they put on the tax payer when they threw the keys for the East Coast franchise back. Any operator that does that, should not get anywhere near a bidding process for another franchise. At least until they pay up the money they committed to in their franchise agreement.